Optimal Load Frequency Control of a Multi-Area Power System with Dead Band Effect and Generation Rate Constraints

Load frequency control is an important factor of supplying quality electricity in an interconnected power system. As a result, an optimally tuned Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller is proposed in this work to eliminate frequency errors caused by unexpected load changes while maintaining tie-line power exchange. The PID controller is tuned using several optimization techniques such as GA, PSO, SCA, and GWO. A two-area power system with Generation Rate Constraint is studied in the first instance, and a three-area thermal power system with both generation rate constraint and dead band effect is considered in the second case. In both scenarios, a PID controller is employed for each area. When compared to the results of other optimization approaches for the same integrated power system, such as Genetic Algorithm, Particle Swarm Optimization, and Sine Cosine Algorithm, the GWO-based PID controller outperforms them in both scenarios. According to the simulation findings, the GWO technique gives better dynamic responses in terms of overshoot value, settling time, and Integral Time Absolute Error. Finally, to evaluate the robustness of the suggested optimization strategies, sensitivity analysis is done by modifying the system parameters (turbine time constant, governor time constant, and both simultaneously) in the range of 25% from their nominal values.